School News

VIRTUE OF THE MONTH

For the month of January, the school will be focusing on the virtue of faithfulness. When we think of being faithful we tend to think of being loyal, true and constant. Faithfulness demands fidelity to each other and to God. Faith is not something we have, but something that we are in, much like a relationship. Therefore, to practice faithfulness is similar to developing a relationship – you have to give it time and attention. Through out the month of January, we will bring this idea to our students and help them develop a deeper faithful life lived in the presence of God.

Le Carnaval

Le Carnaval will be on Wednesday, February 3 from approx 9:15 am until lunchtime (12:15). Dismissal is as usual (2:15) .What to wear? Dress like Bonhomme Carnaval (white pants and top, red tuque, colourful belt or sash) a voyageur or coureur de bois (dark pants, long sleeve winter shirt, tuque, belt or sash) une duchesse (duchess) or les carnavaleux (winter festival-goers).If you would like to earn hours by helping prepare for Le Carnaval e.g. cutting out masks or during Le Carnaval, please contact the office.We look forward to hearing from you.

SIBLINGS

Please notify the school office if you have a pre-school child who will be applying for admittance for the upcoming school year 2016-17.

Please be reminded that if your child(ren) are in a before or after-school activity, siblings may not remain unattended at school. They must either be put into the Stingers Activity Club or be supervised by a responsible adult. Please note that we cannot be responsible for unsupervised children. For more information on the Stingers Club please contact Sheila Vader at stingersclub@stbernadette.ca.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM) AND PARENT SUPPORT MEETING (PSM)

Each year there are a handful of meetings that provide critical and useful information to parents. Out of those meetings three are mandatory for parents to attend. The first was our Parent Information Night in September. The other two are our AGM and PSM (Mandatory for grade 4-7 parents). To help you attend these meetings we have combined them and made them on the same night. On January21st, 2016 starting at 6:30pm we will have our AGM followed by our PSM at approx. 7:30pm. We have been providing you with notice so that you can make arrangements to attend. Once again we will be offering an hour of parent participation per family that attends.

NEW FAMILY INFORMATION NIGHT AND OPEN HO– USE

We are currently accepting applications for all grades in the school. Word of mouth is the best advertisement we can have for the school. With that being said, if you own a business or know of a business that could put up a poster advertising the Open House, we will have copies in the office for you to pick up (they will also be available at the AGM). We also have personal invitations made to give out if you know of a family that you believe would benefit from attending our school.

New families are encouraged to attend the New Family Information Night on January 28th from 7pm – 8pm in the school library. Our Open House will be on Sunday January 31st from 9:30am (after Mass) to 1pm. All are welcome!

Call for Volunteers

Mr. and Mrs. Caindec have made arrangements with a prominent bakery in Richmond to sell fresh bread by donation to families in our school and parish communities. In order to make this work they are in need of volunteers (2 preferably) who can pick up the fresh bread in Richmond on Friday evenings and sell it on Saturday’s after mass. If this interests you and you are able to help out or want to find out more information, please contact Claire and Mark Caindec at ckcaindec@yahoo.com.

REMINDERS

APPLICATION FORMS

Application forms for new students for the upcoming school year 2016-17 are now available and can be picked up from the school office. Families who have children entering Kindergarten will be given the application form with the Re-registration package. If you haven’t notified the office that you have a pre-school child applying for admittance for the 2016-17 school year, please do so as soon as possible.

ABSENT NOTES

If your child is away for any reason, it is imperitive that an absentee note be sent to the school indicating the reason of the absenteeism. It is not the school’s responsibility to notify you if a note has not been handed in. The Ministry of Education requires a note from students who are absent. Failing to submit a note may jeopardize your funding from the government.

IMPORTANT

Dear Parents, Next year all public and independent school will be required to teach a redesigned curriculum from Kindergarten to Grade 9. To assist in the transition, the Ministry of Education has been making efforts to prepare teachers and administrators in a variety of way. Recently, more resources were made available to all school in the province. As a result, …